


Picture Perfect Bride

by Josephine_raya



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Rumbelle Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 18:20:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17126402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josephine_raya/pseuds/Josephine_raya
Summary: Maurice French, no longer wanting to take care of his daughter auctions her off on a mail-order bride website. Mr. Gold responds to the ad.





	Picture Perfect Bride

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheStraggletag](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheStraggletag/gifts).



Belle was standing in the middle of her luxurious hotel room, looking at herself in the mirror. She looked beautiful in her wedding dress. It was a lace dress with a plunging V neckline. The bodice accentuated her slim waistline and had cap sleeves. Her soft skirt had lace flowers with tiny dots made of golden thread in the middle. Her hair was in a messy braided bun, with some baby’s breath braided in. She did not recognise herself. True, she looked like a typical beautiful blushing bride, but her face told a different story. She already had to redo her make-up 3 times, because she kept messing it up with her tears. Her lips were sore from gnawing on them; she had already drawn blood.

Just two months ago, her father decided that he had enough of her living in his house. He was dating a new woman, just two years after her mother passed away. He wanted to start a new life with her, and Belle was taking up precious space. “I just want a fresh start, Belle!” he told her on the same night he introduced his girlfriend He also had admitted that he didn’t think she would be able to live by herself. Yes, she had some mental issues in the past, she had been admitted to the hospital when her depression took the best of her. But that was in the past and she was building a life for herself; going to college, making friends. Maurice on the other hand, still believed she wouldn’t be able to cope by herself; “You aren’t getting any younger Belle, and neither am I. I can’t take care of you forever and you are nearly 25! It’s someone else’s turn now. Why don’t you get married and live with Gaston? He can provide for you; his family has money. You won’t have to look for a job anymore or go out with your shady friends to some disgusting bar.” She became so angry with him that he threatened to lock her up in the hospital again. “You are leaving this house, with a husband or a straightjacket and that’s final!” When she still refused to marry Gaston and screamed that she would rather marry a stranger, her father put her picture on some mail-order bride website. She still felt her cheeks burning with shame when she thought about it.

She had never expected him to do such a horrible thing, but she saw the page he had ultimately created for her, complete with a few happy pictures from her past and a brief description about her studying Library Science and a few of her hobbies which he had made up to appeal to possible suitors. Her father showed her the page with great pride even. “Look Belle, already multiple interested men! I’m going to pick the richest man though, only the best for my daughter!” Belle was so disappointed in her father. She couldn’t believe he would treat her like cattle; to be sold to the highest bidder. No wonder he thought Gaston was a suitable option for her; they were both equally misogynistic. She sort of accepted her fate in some strange way. If marriage was the way out of her father’s house, then so be it.

After a month of being on display on this awful website, someone with enough money had responded and her father agreed to make a deal. The man could marry her, if he would pay the rent for Maurice’s struggling flower shop for the next 5 years.

Her life was being exchanged for some bushels of roses..

\--------

“Do the brave thing, and bravery will follow,” Belle thought when her father guided her down the aisle. She held her head up high, and stared towards the end of the aisle, keeping her eyes focused on  the priest. She didn’t notice, or pay much attention, to the other important person on this day; the man she was about to marry. He almost mirrored her body language when she finally looked at him. He too was staring at the priest, his back towards Belle. She could see the tension in his back; he was also nervous about this whole situation.  His legs were slightly parted and she could see he was leaning on a cane. He looked vaguely familiar but she couldn’t see his face.

When they reached their destination at the end of the aisle, Belle turned her head away when her father tried to kiss her cheek. She vowed she would never speak to him again after this day.

When she turned to face the groom for the first time, a shock went through her. It was Mr Gold! Mr. Gold was going to be her new husband! He wasn’t a complete stranger to her, afterall, but she knew his reputation and it wasn’t good. He was the owner of the pawn shop in town and her father’s defence lawyer when he was being sued for copyright infringement regarding his shops name, “Game of Thorns”. She had seen him a couple of times but hadn’t really spoken to him except for the occasional ‘good afternoon’ and ‘good evening’ when she ran into him around town. He had been nice to her in the past though. So he was the one she was being sold to. She knew more than enough about his reputation and the gossip surrounding him, and for a moment she was even more scared of him than of Gaston. But at least Mr Gold was smaller than Gaston and he had a limp. So she could outrun him is she needed to.

She was still in shock when they spoke their vows and it all went past her like in a haze. She didn’t realize it was over until she heard the priest say “You may kiss the bride.” Belle’s eyes went big with fear and she tensed up. She was going to have to kiss him! Gold gave a tiny, shy smile when he looked at her he finally leaned over he gently kissed her next to the corner of her mouth; nobody else seemed to notice he failed to kiss her a few inches shy of her lips..

Her friends weren’t invited to the wedding, so soon, she found herself in the backseat of a limousine. Mr Gold, her now husband, was sitting next to her playing with his flip phone. The wedding went by her so fast that she didn’t even hear a thing.

They arrived at their honeymoon location at the Boston Harbor Hotel an hour after they finished up signing all the papers to legalize their marriage, Mr Gold checked in while Belle was waiting by their suitcases. She was worried about what would happen on their wedding night. Would Mr Gold would expect something to happen between the two of them? Perhaps this is why he had wanted to marry her all along… Belle shook her head. He had a bad reputation, but he wasn’t a bad man, from what she knew of him. If this was the cost of her escaping her father, however, then it was a small price to pay.

When they reached their hotel room, she noticed there was, as you might expect from a honeymoon suite, only one bed.  There was, however, a small sofa in the corner by the window and a desk. Mr Gold walked over to the sofa and suggests “I can sleep here on the sofa tonight, if you’d like-”.

At the same time Belle blurted out “-So how do you want to do this?”

“Excuse me?”  Gold asked surprised.

“What?” Belle was confused. “I assumed you wanted to have a... “proper” wedding night. Consummate the marriage? I mean, that must be what you were after. Why else would you marry me? I know your reputation, Mr Gold. You find weakness in people and exploit them for your own gain. Me having had a mental illness is a weakness. And when my father put me on that awful website, you knew I was vulnerable. You found me and knew you could exploit me,” She spat at him angrily. She wanted to cry.

Mr Gold sighed and sad down on the sofa looking tired. “Belle, I’m disappointed you would think such things of me.”

His use of her first name made Belle feel powerless. She still had yet to know his.

“You see the good in people and I expected you to be better than just go by some rumours when judging someone.“ He started to explain: ”I saw you on the website; Maurice sent the page to every single one of his business relations. I was disgusted he would do this to you; selling you off to the highest bidder like that. So I decided to marry you just so you could get away from Maurice. Because I know you are capable of so much more. I just needed to get you out of that house. I wasn’t exploiting your weakness Belle, I was exploiting Maurice’s weakness; his love for money and his carelessness for you. I couldn’t sue him, because these mail-order bride websites are technically legal and I had to get you out of that house as fast as possible.”

Belle was even more confused now. “But where do we go from here? You got me away from my father, but now what? I have nothing to give you in return. I have no job, I’m homeless, I can’t even go back to college because father stopped funding it.”

Gold walked over to her and placed his hands on her arms, trying to reassure her. “You can have a home with me. I have a spare room for you in my house. And soon you will have a job. You’re studying Library Science, correct? I’m in the process of securing funding for the Storybrooke library, in the meantime you could help me out in the pawn shop. I have a lot of antique books that need to be catalogued and sorted. And if you want, you could save up some money to finish your degree; I’m not going to stop you” he laughed, “You can have all that, that is, if you spend just this one night with me.”

The blood drained from Belle’s face. So he _did_ want to consummate this marriage. She tore herself away from his touch and took a step back. Gold realized his mistake “It was a quip, dearie. I didn’t mean… you misunderstand. I meant we have to sleep in the same room together. I can take the couch, it’s fine.”

He immediately limped back to the couch, to make sure she would understand that he was indeed intending to sleep there.

“No wait!” Belle apologized. “You don’t have to sleep on the couch, especially when you have been so kind to me. We can share the bed. It’s big enough and I trust you. Unless you don’t trust me?”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” Belle had made up her mind.

They took turns using the bathroom, and when they finally settled in their shared bed and the lights were out, all the emotions from this day washed over Belle and spilled out. She had started to cry again and hoped Gold wouldn’t notice her silent sobs, but she suddenly felt his hand searching for hers and he carefully held it, drawing circles with his thumb in comfort. Belle hadn’t felt this kind of kindness for a while now, and she rolled over to him in a hug. He tensed for just a moment, but relaxed as he rubbed her back. Soon they both fell asleep. They could make this work.

**Author's Note:**

> This was my very first fic so I hope it's ok ;)  
> The prompt I got was: Arranged Marriage Modern AU and it's a Rumbelle Secret Santa gift for TheStraggleTag. I really hope you like it, the pressure was on since you are the Keeper of The Thing XD
> 
> Thanks to Otava for being my beta! It really made all the difference :) Couldn't have done it woithout you! And thanks to Sieben9 for brainstorming with me!


End file.
